Author's Note:

This is the last chapter, y'all. I just want to thank everyone who read/reviewed/favorited. I'm debating about writing a sequel, even if it's just a longer one-shot if there's interest. Once again, thank you all so much!

Miracles. They were always April's favorite part of bible study, or the pastor's sermons on Sunday. Growing up, she loved hearing about the extraordinary things that could happen because of God's love. As she grew older and went to med school, became a doctor, she'd read about case studies that just could not be explained by medicine. All the rationality and science in the world could explain why some people just miraculously got better. And so, even though she didn't share her faith with anyone besides Reed back then, she always had a soft spot for those cases, and she cataloged them in the back of her mind, wondering if she'd ever experience a miracle herself.

She had hoped and she had prayed for a miracle for Samuel, for God to save her baby, but there was no miracle to be found.

She had cried in that empty OR, feeling so hopeless, but then Owen had taken her face in his hands, and he said, "You're having a baby. It's not a screwup, it's a miracle." And so April started to believe in miracles again.

But ultimately, April knows miracles aren't easy to come by. And sometimes you have to fight for them.

Jackson is walking towards Arizona, hands running over his scalp, and she can hear him muttering, "Oh god.." and she can see the fear in his eyes, so she quickly says, "She's alive! Jackson, she's alive. She's going to be fine."

Jackson's eyes widen. "What the hell? Dammit, Robbins, you scared me to death!" His raised voice resounds throughout the NICU.

"She's fine, but there were- there were complications. She flatlined and she was hemorrhaging, and we couldn't suction all the bleeders. So I- we had to perform a hysterectomy. We had to remove her uterus, and…" Arizona continues, but she really doesn't need to. Jackson's a doctor, he knows what this means. April will never become pregnant again, she'll never give birth again, and while Jackson knows in the back of his mind the tragedy in that, but- she's alive. The only thing circling around his head right now is she's alive and she's still breathing, and she'll still be red and pale and pink, and their daughter is recovering well- she's strong, that's what Karev had said- their daughter is strong, and so Jackson's heart finally starts beating again.

"Thank you," is all Jackson can say, and he can see Ben is going to say something, but Jackson stops him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you both."

Jackson leaves to go see April, and Arizona is about to tell him that it'll probably be a little while before she wakes up, but he's already gone. Sighing, Arizona wanders over to baby girl Avery's incubator- or is it Kepner-Avery? She'll have to ask April later on, after all of this has settled down.

"How's she doing?"

"Pretty great. She's not going to have to be in there much longer, I just want to make sure all her vitals are completely stable for at least 6 hours," Alex answers, adjusting one of the sides of the incubator, before glancing Arizona's way.

"I don't blame him for assuming the worst. You're the A team. Where's Deluca?" Karev asks, looking up at Arizona.

Arizona sighs, again, and rubs her forehead. It'd been a long day, and she is tired and she wants to explain everything to April, explain why she had to do it, but also? Right now she just really wants to see Sofia. "We're April's friends. We're Jackson's friends. I'm not going to send an intern out to explain to him what we did, what happened."

Alex considers Arizona for a moment. "What you did? You mean, saving her life? Because that's what you did."

"I wasn't supposed to be her doctor. I wasn't supposed to be the one making these decisions. She had trusted me before, and now…" Arizona trails off. "I don't know what she's going to say."

"She'll understand, she'll get it. I get it."

The day was just weighing on her shoulders as Arizona looks at Alex. She knows something's been up with him lately, but he's still here right now and so she smiles. "Thank you. We're gonna be okay, Alex."

Alex gives her a half-smile, saying "Yeah, sure we will," and she's not entirely sure if he's just being flip or if he actually believes her.

Miranda is there waiting in the hallway as Ben leaves the NICU. Her hands are on her hips, and her mouth is open. She's about to speak, but Ben isn't sure whether she's going to be his wife or if she's going to be the Chief, whether this is Church or State, so he cuts her off.

"I did what I had to do. For April and her baby. And she's alive, her baby is alive. And yes, we had to remove her uterus, but- it was an emergency and there's only so much you can do after those kinds of internal injuries. I helped save both of their lives because I am a surgeon, and I'm not going to apologize for it. You may think I'm impulsive, but that is all I was ever trying to do- save lives," he finishes. "If you want to fire me for that, go ahead."

His words echo throughout the hallway. Miranda is just standing there, lips pursed, and so Ben turns around; he doesn't need this. He's still shellshocked after everything,

"You did good, Dr. Warren," Miranda says, and Ben stops in his tracks, before turning around to look at her. She is sighing and shaking her head, and she's slightly teary-eyed, but all she says again is, "Ben. You did real good."

And while Ben knows there's still issues between the two of them, there's such a warmth in her eyes- this is a start, and that's- that's something.

"How's the baby?"

Jackson is moving quickly down the hallway, dying to see April, to see with his own eyes that she's okay, she's gonna be okay, but he stops, turns around. Catherine is standing just behind him. "Aren't you going to introduce me?"

"I need to go see April, and I know she won't want to see you."

Exasperated, Catherine exclaims, "I was trying to protect you, look out for you! I'm not sorry for that, I won't apologize for that, ever!"

Jackson sighs deeply. "Do you know what some of the Avery's said about you when I was a kid? They'd say that you were the reason my father left, that you were the one to put too much pressure on him, that you didn't deserve to have the Avery name." Jackson always referred to William as his father, never his dad. Anybody could be a father, but you have to choose to be a dad, and Jackson? Jackson's going to be not just a father, but a dad.

Catherine recoils. "Yes, I know, but I quickly shut all that stupidity down. It was fine."

"But can you imagine for a second what that was like for me? To hear my mom talked about in that way? I would get so angry, but I was just a kid, I couldn't deal with all of that. And you know what? My daughter won't have to. You will treat April with respect. She is the mother of my child. You will not go after her, you will leave her alone, unless she wants to see you. Do you understand me?"

"Jackson-"

"Mom." His voice is firm, and he is standing tall, and he is strong, not like his father.

Catherine face is impassive for another moment, before she nods her head.

"Good. Now I'm going to go see April, and I'll… I'll talk to you later." Jackson strides away, and Catherine determinedly fights tears. She is happily married, with a new healthy granddaughter, but standing in the quiet hallway at Grey-Sloan, all she feels is lonely.

April stares at her daughter in awe. She knows there'll be a time, later, when she'll cry over the fact that she can't have anymore children. She'll grieve that potential loss, but that'll happen later. Right now, she is staring at her baby, and her baby's ten toes and her baby's ten fingers, and all April can think is, this is what a miracle feels like and suddenly she's crying. Arizona is hovering near the door, having just explained the hysterectomy, and Jackson is sitting next to her in a chair. Their daughter's incubator is nestled between her bed and his chair, because as Jackson explained, he just had to steal their baby from the NICU. She had to meet her mother. Well, he says he courageously stole her, but April figures when you're the chairman of the hospital, who's gonna tell you no?

But now, when she starts crying, Jackson murmurs in the back of his throat, reaching his hand across the bed sheets.

"April…" Arizona begins, shifting anxiously. "I did everything I could, but I had to make a decision, just like Warren did, and we were both just trying to-"

"Arizona, stop. I know, ok? I know how bad it was- how close I was to… not making it." April's not sure if she'll ever tell anyone what she saw while she was under. She'd been wary earlier in her life, about sharing her religion with her fellow doctors, but she'd gotten past that. Seeing dead friends, however? She's pretty sure people would have a hard time believing that. Maybe at some point, she could talk about how Charles, Sloan, and Reed had guided her, helped her reach some conclusions. Maybe.

"You did what had to be done. Thank you," April continues before smiling. "I'm ok, we're ok…" she trails her fingers down the incubator. "I'm just not finished yet," April finishes bemusedly, staring at her daughter.

"Wait, what?" Arizona tilts her head, and Jackson turns to meet her eyes. Even after all this time, April occasionally will have moments where she's startled by his eyes. And now she's wondering if her daughter's eyes will end up being more like Jackson's, or if she will have April's dimples, and the wealth of possibility in their daughter is slightly stunning.

"Nothing, it's nothing."

Arizona nods, "I'll let you three spend some time together, but April, you should get some more rest soon, and I'll bet Karev is going to want to check on this cutie soon," Arizona finishes, smiling at their baby before leaving the room.

Jackson and April don't say anything for a moment, just absorbing the moment and their daughter, and each other too.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there, at first." Jackson says, his fingers moving over the stitches in the blanket.

"It's ok, you're here now. And I'm pretty sure it's still day one," April smiles ruefully.

"Day one," Jackson repeats with a low chuckle, staring at their baby, before turning intently towards April.

"April, I- it's- it's not past tense." Jackson says, finally, quietly, his hand now closer to hers on the bed sheet. April takes a moment to look away from her daughter, (but just one, because she's pretty sure she'll never look away again) before turning to Jackson

"What do you mean?" she asks. Should she know what that means? Maybe she should've been able to understand that, but she thinks Jackson could cut her some slack, considering she just had a couple major surgeries, once of which was started in a car. Holy crap, she had an crash C-section in a car.

"I'm…" Jackson trails off, shaking his head, before beginning again, taking her hand in his. "April. What I said before? It's not past tense. You are my best friend. You are my favorite person. Always. It's present tense, it's future tense, not past."

Jackson's hands been shaking before, and he hadn't been able to feel anything, but now he feels everything. He looks at April and he looks at his daughter, and he feels everything, so his heart beats like a drum in his head, and his hand is holding April's like she's his anchor. And maybe she is.

April doesn't want to hope. Because- well. Hope can only get you so far. They created something beautiful, together, and so maybe- maybe they weren't fixed yet, but- April's not finished. April's not finished, and Jackson's hand is holding tightly onto hers as they sit next to their healthy, strong, beautiful daughter. So while they may not be fixed yet, that doesn't mean they're broken. They're not broken.